A synthetic zeolite is crystalline aluminosilicate, and has uniform pores with angstrom sizes attributed to a crystal structure thereof. Taking advantage of such a feature, the synthetic zeolite has been industrially used as a molecular sieving adsorbent that adsorbs only a molecule having a particular size, an adsorption separating agent that adsorbs a molecule having strong affinity, or a catalytic base.
By the way, MAZ is a designation representing a skeletal structure type to which a zeolite omega belongs. An MAZ-type zeolite is a zeolite having a large pore with an 8-membered ring and 12-membered ring, has the high adsorption ability of ammonia, and promising as an isomerization activating catalyst for n-hexane. Conventionally, the MAZ-type zeolite has been produced by only a method using tetramethylammonium ions and the like as an organic structure-directing agent (hereinafter, abbreviated as “OSDA”) (See, Patent Documents 1 and 2, and Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2). Therefore, it has been believed that it is essential to use an OSDA in order to obtain the MAZ-type zeolite. In addition, it has been believed that it is inevitable for the synthesized MAZ-type zeolite to be fired so as to remove an OSDA before use, since it contains the OSDA.
A synthetic method of the MAZ-type zeolite is for example, as described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, and Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2, and a common method is one using tetramethylammonium ions as an OSDA in the coexistence of sodium ions and potassium ions. However, since said OSDA is expensive, it is not advantageous to be used industrially. In addition, since the OSDA is incorporated in the crystals of the produced zeolite, it is necessary to fire the zeolite to remove the OSDA when the zeolite is used as an adsorbent or a catalyst. Exhaust gases produced at that time are responsible for environmental pollution, and further, many drugs are required for detoxification treatment of synthetic mother liquor containing decomposition products of the OSDA. In this way, the method for synthesizing the MAZ-type zeolite using the OSDA is not only an expensive method but also a production method having a great environmental load. Thus, there is a need to realize a production method using no OSDAs and an MAZ-type zeolite essentially containing no organic matters obtained by the method.    Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,447, Specification    Patent Document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,023, Specification    Non-Patent Document 1: Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 35, 555-572, 2000    Non-Patent Document 2: Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 63, 33-42, 2003